Weather stripping for freight car sidings



June 14, 1932.. A. THUNE WEATHER STRIPPING FOR FREIGHT CAR SIDING FiledOct. 11, 1930 Patented June 14, 1932 ITED STATES ANTON THUNE, 0FMINNEAPOLIS, IEINNESOTA WEATHER STEIPPING FOR FREIGHT CAR ,SIDINGSApplication filed October 11, 1930. Serial No. 488,068.

To all persons familiar with the structure and usage of freight cars, itis well known that the body portions of many freight cars are still madeof wood. The sidings are usu- 5 ally composed of tongued and groovedboards with the tongued or tenoned member located underneath the groovedmember, and the tenon engaging the groove of the grooved member. Itofttimes happens that the lumber has not been thoroughly dried outbefore it is put into use on the cars; but whether the lumber has beenfully seasoned, or not, the joints will, in the service, open to agreater or less extent under the shocks and strains of the service, andwhen the car is exposed to the rain or fine snow, more or less water andsnow will pass inward through the joints to the inside of the car andofttimes greatly injure the contents thereof. It has therefore, beenfound necessary to pack, or seal these joints between the tongucd andgrooved members of the sidings, to prevent moisture from being passedthrough the I joints to the interior of the car.

My invention has for its object to provide an improved weather strip forsealing the joints of such tongue and groove jointed sidings of freightcars, but, of course, the invention is applicable to many otherstructures wherein such tongue and groove boards are employed andexposed to the weather. To the end above stated, my invention consistsof a Weatherstrip having the novel features hereinafter described andpointed out in the claims.

This invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in threeslightly different forms, all of which are within the scope of thehereinafter st ted claims. In said drawing, like notations refer to likeparts throughout the several views Fig. l is a perspective view showingpor tion of the body of a freight car having tongue and groove sidingsequipped with my invention;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of portions of two jointed boards havingthe preferred. form of my weather strip in working positi on. to protectthe joint;

Fig. 3 is a vertical section through two boards and the weather stripshown in Fig. 52; Fig. 4 is a perspective view showing a slightlymodified form of my weather strip; Fig. 5 is a vertical section throughtwo jointed boards having the said modified form of my weather strip inworking position;

Fig. 6 is another perspective view showing another slightly modifiedform of my weather strip; and

Fig. 7 is a vertical s ction through two boards having the modified formof strip shown in Fig. 6 in working position.

In Fig. 1 of the drawing, the reference 1 represents a portion of afreight car having its sidings equipped with my improved weather strip.

In Figs. 2, 3, 5 and 7, the numeral. 8 represents the lower member oftwo tongued and grooved jointed boards and the numeral 9 represents theupper member of the two boards. The lower board 8 is provided with thecustomary tongue or tenon 8a, and the upper boarl 9 is provided with thecustomary groove 9a.

My improved weather a thin strip of resilient metal, such as steel bentupon itself crosswise of the strip at different places, to afford aweather strip of the desired form. In all of its illustrated forms, myimproved weather strip is composed of an upright portion 10 and astepped base porti on 11; and in all the forms the upright portion 10 isprovided with an outwardly and downwardly turned flange 10a at its upperend which makes that part of the weather strip of hook shape in crosssection: and the downturned part of this flange st ids slightly outwardfrom the body portion or the strip, and because of this fact, it willyield or spring slightly whenever so needed. Moreover, the upper endsection of the body 10 is slightly offset inward so that the hook-shapedupper end portion of the strip is of considerably reater width than thebody portion thereof. In the simplest form of my strip illustrated inFigs. 2 and 3. the base portion 11 is composed of a single step. In theslight modification shown in Figs. 4: and. 5, the base portion of thestrip is composed of two steps, and in the form illustrated in Figs. 6and 7,

strip is formed of er joint between the tongue and the grooveof the twojointed boards, with the upper end portion lda of the strip located inthe said slot 12 of the board 9, and the hook shaped top portion aslightly compressed or under spring tension.

In all the forms, the stepped portion 11 of the base of the Weatherstriprests on the outer shoulder of the lower board 8, and in the formillustrated in Figs. 2 and 3, the downturned outer portion of the stepoverlaps the outer face of the lower board and, in the usage of thisform, the horizontal part of its step is secured to the lower board 8 bya nail N. In the modification shown in Figs. 4 and 5, the, base, orstepped portion of the weather strip has one more step 11a than the formshown in Figs. 2 and 3; and for its application in working position, asshown in Fig. 5, the lower board 8 is pro vided with a vertical'slot 86extending downward from the outer member of the tenons shoulders andadapted to receive the outer step of the base 11, and then be filledwith cement or lead 13, for closing the slot and holding the embeddedparts of the strip in proper working position, as shown in F ig. 5 ofthe drawing.

In the modification shown in Figs. 6 and 7, the base of the strip. isformed with what might be called a two-facedsingle step 11 and 111)connected by a beaded fold 110 of the metal, which beaded fold isadapted to be seated in a vertical slot 8?) formed in the lower board 8of the pair of boards shown in Fig. 7, embedded in cement or lead 14first placed in the slot. 7

From the foregoing it will be seen, that, in all forms of my improvedWeatherstrip, all parts of the outer joint between the tongue and groovejointed boards is lapped by the Weatherstrip. and the joints sealedthereby in such a way that no water or snow can pass through the jointof said boards to the inside of the car. On the contrary, any water thatgets into the outer joint must come between the base of the strip andthe upright portion of the stripand be thereby intercepted and directedback outward to the outer face of the car. There is no possibility ofthe water passing over the upper end of the upright part of the stripbecause the water would necessarily strike the undersurface of thehook-shaped flange at the upper end of the strip and be turned downwardand backward thereby. There is no possibility of the Water or snowgetting under the base of the strip in any of the forms illustrated. Inthe form shown in Fig. 8, the downturned part of the step embraces theouter face of the underboard, as clearly shown in Figs. 2 and 3 of thedrawing, and precludes the entrance of water or snow. In the forms shownin Figs. 4 and 5 and Figs. 6 and '7, the downwardly projected parts ofthe base of the strip are embedded in cement, filling the slots providedto receive said parts, and excluding rain or snow therefrom and rigidlysecuring the strip to the lower board 8.

IVhat is claimed is 1. In combination with a pair of boards disposededge to edge and having a tongue and groove joint therebetween, ajoint-closing strip having a fiat intermediate portion extendinglongitudinally throughout its length and adapted to fit between theopposed edges of said boards, extending outwardly from the tonguecarried by one of said boards, said strip having an upwardly extendingsubstantially vertical flange disposed against the vertical edge of saidtongue and seated in a narrow groove formed in the other board andclosing the joint between said boards even when said boards are spacedsome distance apart.

2. In combination with a pair of boards forming a portion of a wall anddisposed substantially edge to edge, said boards having a tongue andgroove joint therebetween, a joint closing strip having a flatintermediate portion extending longitudinally thereof substantiallythroughout its length and fitting between longitudinal portions of oneof said boards'outwardly to the outer surface of said wall, the groovedboard having a relatively narrow longitudinal groove communicatin withits main grove and substantially aligns with the outer side of thetongue of the second board. said strip having a perpendicular portionextending substantially longitudinally throughout its length, saidperpendicular portion terminating in an outwardly and downwardly turnededge yieldingly engaging said narrow grooved portion for insuring thereturn of any leakage to the outer face of the joined boards, and meansfor securing the intermediate portion of said strip to one of saidboards.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

- ANTON THUNE.

